WESTERN AFRICA.-SIERRA-LEONE.

SIERRA-LEONE.

THE gratification with which our readers will have pursued Mr. Wharton's account of Bishop Vidal's visit to James Town, will give place to sentiments of deep regret on perusing the following communication from Sierra-Leone, which shortly records the sudden and premature death of that admirable Prelate, who (as Mr. Edney informs us) died at sea about two hundred miles to the south of the colony. He adds, "Such were his meekness and heavenly-mindedness, and his eminent qualifications for the important work in which he was engaged, that it was almost impossible to be favoured with his acquaintance and not feel veneration and love for him." In this

sentiment we entirely concur; and most sincerely do we condole with the Church Missionary Society upon the loss sustained in his removal, and pray the Lord of the harvest that his place (alas, how soon vacated!) may be suitably supplied.

Extract of a Letter from the Rev. Lionel D. Reay, dated Sierra-Leone,
January 5th, 1855.

You will regret to learn that Mr. Edney, who arrived here on the 13th of last month, is, at present, confined to his bed very ill. He went to Bathurststreet chapel on Sunday morning last, with the intention of conducting the service, but was obliged suddenly to leave, and was soon afterwards seized with strong fever. Although at present very weak and low, he is progressing favourably, and we hope in a few days he will be convalescent.

You will also be surprised and grieved to hear that Dr. Vidal, the truly amiable and devoted Bishop of Sierra-Leone, is no more. He was returning from a visit to Cape-Coast and Lagos, when he was seized with malignant fever, and, in the course of a few days, died at sea, within two hundred miles of Sierra-Leone. The "Bacchante" brought his remains into harbour on the morning of the 26th,

and the funeral took place the same day. In Dr. Vidal this Coast has lost an able and devoted friend. He was well known, I believe, as the ablest living scholar in the unknown languages of Africa, and to him the Bible Society was looking for important literary aid in rendering the word of God intelligible to the ignorant and debased nations of the interior. His death, therefore, will be very deeply and widely lamented. Poor Mrs. Vidal had just returned from England, and was anxiously looking for her husband. The shock she has received in his death is deeply serious.

My colleagues, Messrs. Teal and Dillon, are still quite well.

Since the close of the rains my own health has exhibited some very unfavourable symptoms; but I hope, with care and rest, to regain my usual vigour.

SOUTH AFRICA.

ALBANY AND KAFFRARIA DISTRICT.

Extract of a Letter from the Rev. William Shaw, dated Graham's Town,
November 24th, 1854.

I HEAR that it is possible that a letter sent off by this post may leave the Cape for England by the "Sir Robert Peel" mail steamer. I therefore write a few hurried lines, to apprize you of my safe arrival at home, from my recent long journey to visit the Stations to the northward and in the Bechuana Country. I reached Graham-Town on Wednesday, the 15th instant. I was absent upwards of ten weeks, during which time I travelled more than a thousand miles, and visited the following towns and Missionary Stations; namely, Alice, Kama's tribe, Keiskamma, Eland's Port, Kamastone, Queen's-Town, Lesseyton, Burgher's Dorp, Aliwal North, Witteberg, Colesberg, Shiloh, Heald'sTown, Fort-Beaufort. Besides these places, I also visited the following towns and Stations beyond the OrangeRiver; namely, Smithfield, Plattberg, Berea, Thaba Bossiu, Moshesh's Mountain, on the top of which I spent some

time in an interview with that great Chief of the Basutos, Thaba 'Unchu, where I also had much conversation with Moroko, the Chief of the Barolongs, Bloem Fontein, Bethany, and Philippolis.

I cannot at present send you a full account of my visit to these places; but will write to you more at large by some other opportunity. I will just now only say, that, on the whole, I have to report that the state and prospects of these Missions are such as to call for thankfulness, and stimulate hope that, notwithstanding the recent untoward events, they will revive, and go on and prosper.

P.S. I am sorry to say that during my absence, many startling rumours have got into circulation, of some secret plotting between the Kaffir Chief and the Fingoes, for the purpose of forming a combination in another war against the colony.

46

WEST INDIES.-HONDURAS.

March,

WEST INDIES.

HONDURAS.

Extract of a Letter from the Rev. Richard Fletcher, dated Belize
December 15th, 1854.

My object in writing to you by this mail, is to tell you how greatly we stand in need of a well-trained and efficient day-school

Teacher. The various schools in the settlement, receiving help from the Board of Education, have been examined this week, in the presence of His Excellency the Governor and lady, several members of the Board, and other friends of education; and I am sorry to say that our boys' school appeared to very great disadvantage. Dr. Young,

one of the members of the Board, told me that formerly we had the best boys' school in the place; but that is far from being the case now, which is to be accounted for by the negligence and misconduct of the last Teacher em. ployed, who was borne with for some time, and at length dismissed. Mr. Haime had no properly-qualified person to succeed him, and the person who has had charge of the school since, though the most suitable that could be got, is not the Teacher we need; and we cannot expect him to compete with the Teachers of the other schools, all of whom are well-trained European Teachers : the Establishment has one such Teacher; the Presbyterians one; and, I am sorry to say, the Church of Rome has two, who are leaving no stone unturned. In the prosperity of schools, when the fundamental doctrines of the Bible are taught, we rejoice; but at the same time we feel it our duty to maintain our position as a Christian Society, and to have the children of our people trained up in the glorious doctrines we hold, which are not only opposed to the false doctrines of Papacy, but to doctrines taught in other schools, such as the unconditional perseverance of believers, baptismal regeneration, and the like. Our female school, which is the largest in the place, was much commended, and much credit is due to the Teachers, Mrs. and Miss Lewis; but unless you can help us, as we cannot help ourselves, nor be helped from Jamaica, the school must still go down. At the examination of our schools the Governor and his lady were very friendly, and expressed their wish that we might soon succeed in securing a competent Teacher. We have every reason to think that our great need in this respect you will soon

be able to meet. The Board engage to pay the passage of a Teacher out in any merchant vessel, and also to pay 12s. a year, per head, for each scholar who regularly attends; and the amount that might remain, say to complete a sum of £120 per year as a salary, we could pay ourselves. The Board of Education has been in operation now about three years, and they afford every advantage to the various denominations, as they supply each school with every thing that is necessary; and, to encourage good attendance and behaviour, and to inspire the scholars with diligence in their studies, at the half-yearly examinations a large number of very excellent rewardbooks are given to the most deserving.

It would be necessary that the Teacher should also be a Local Preacher, as he might be of invaluable service here. In Belize we have no Local Preacher who can acceptably occupy the pulpit in case of our sickness, or when visiting the out-Stations; and the best of them can only imperfectly read a printed sermon. Having no local help in Belize, we have none to send to the out-places near, some of which are rather large. In CaribbTown, which is thirty-six miles from here, I am told that there is a population of more than two thousand inhabitants; but there is no Missionary in the place, no school, no Local Preacher; and I believe we are the only denomination that pay them occasional visits, and try to save them from eternal woe. Within the last week, Mr. Haime and myself spent a few days in the place, re-opened the chapel that was blown down about two years ago, did all the good we could among them, and left them with feelings of compassion. On the Sunday evening near the chapel the natives were keeping a wake. They had the figure of a schooner marked out on the ground, and masts driven in, rigged up, with the sails flying in the wind, a number of men dressed up as sailors, running up and down the rigging, and scores of people looking on, making a dreadful noise. Such was a funeral wake, and the person had only been dead some few hours before. With a good deal of persuasion we prevailed upon them to pull it down, and got them to go home; some of them

were the worse for drink. Devil feasts we found again prevailed in the place; a shed was erected on purpose, and the work of the devil was in great prosperity. Less we could not expect when they are left so much under the influence of the prince of darkness; and Mr. Haime, from the shattered state of his health, could not possibly devote more labour to the place than what he has done. I am thankful to say, that, after speaking to them on the folly and wickedness of such practices, we got them to pull the shed down, and to remove the things used on such occasions away; and I doubt not, if we could give them more labour, we should soon see many of them devoting themselves to God. They are a fine race of people, and the men can all speak English, and some of the women; so that at once we have access to them, and may hope for much from them.

Mullin's River, which is ten miles nearer Belize than Caribb-Town, and, like the other places, only accessible by water, stands in need of more Missionary labour. The place contains about five hundred inhabitants; some four hundred of whom are under the influence of Romanism, and given up to every vile practice. When we arrived there the other evening, large numbers of them were enaged in a procession,

carrying the image of Santa Maria. Among the procession some persons were singing, others firing guns, others carrying lighted candles, crosses, &c., &c., and not a few of the men were drunk; but they have no Priest living among them, and are only occasionally visited by one; and from our conversation with them, we thought that if we could oftener visit the place, many of them might be reclaimed from their delusion; for more than one of the leading men asked us if their doings were not right, evidently doubting the correctness of them. You will see that we are much in want of lay agency here, and we must be materially hindered in our work till you can send us such a person out as we request. Mr. Webb is here at present; but in January he will be leaving for Ruatan, which is some one hundred and thirty-six miles from this, and his labours for some time to come will be confined to that island, and the adjoining places. We shall be anxious to hear from you the result of our request, and hope that we shall soon obtain the help which we need. Our trust is in the Lord, and with all our hearts we engage in His cause, and from Him expect success to attend our labours in the salvation of souls. The Lord grant us grace, that we may be found faithful!

HOME PROCEEDINGS.

OUR INCREASED CIRCULATION.

Ir is with great satisfaction we find that for the last three years the demand for the "Notices" has steadily increased; so that now we have a monthly circulation of nearly forty thousand copies. To our MISSIONARIES this must be highly encouraging, as it proves that the interest in their labours and communications continues to advance. Yet we confess to great doubt whether our Numbers are always well used. In many places we fear they are but very imperfectly distributed among the subscribers. Local officers sometimes neglect to convey, to all who are entitled to them, these pages which record the results and reward of their past liberality. We should be glad to believe that the cases were few where this occurs; but we fear they are not few. While the officers conscientiously arrange for the regular distribution, as we gratefully own that many regularly do, many contributors allow the Notice to lie unread, to their serious loss mentally and spiritually. In the name of our brethren in the field, we call upon those whose gifts have sent them out, to watch and trace their footsteps; and in the name of the infant Missionary churches, and the hosts of yet untaught Heathen, we call on the favoured members of churches at home to acquaint themselves, month by month, with their wants.

many. They have requested that ANNUAL SUBSCRIBERS WOULD PAY THEIR SUBSCRIPTIONS IN THE MONTH OF MAY. To the large number who did so last year they now return their cordial thanks. The Society has gained much by their considerate act. But as those who yet have begun to pay in May are a small proportion of the whole, and as we have promised our friends persevering applications on this point, we once more beg the earnest attention of those who hitherto have paid only at the end of the year to the fact, that every pound then paid has been spent perhaps months before; for, of course, our outlay in the first months of the year is as large as in the last; while at present our income is, in those months, extremely small. Every pound paid in December or January, is to the Society a pound less so much, already deducted for interest.

FINANCES OF 1855.

THE present state of the country gives all Societies depending on periodical contributions reasons for solicitude, as to their income; and renders it of the highest importance that great attention be paid to those forms of small and regular contribution which, without at any one moment pressing upon contributors, when diligently worked, furnish large resources. The penny a week, or shilling a quarter, subscriptions, and the daily offering, we specially commend to the attention of our friends. It is never to be forgotten that a debt of NINETEEN THOUSAND POUNDS still burdens the Committee, the extinction of which is to them an object of earnest and constant desire. Never were their opportunities for extension so great, and yet at every point they have been compelled to curtail expenditure. Any failing of the regular income would be a serious calamity to existing Missions, as well as a hindrance to extensions, for which the call is most urgent. But the Committee have had such repeated proofs of the devotion of their friends, amidst difficulty and struggle, and of the bountiful fidelity of the Lord of the harvest, that, while feeling the necessity for fresh efforts in the present trying moment, they firmly trust that He whose work they are doing will not permit its resources to decline.

ARRIVALS AND DEPARTURES OF MISSIONARIES.

THE Rev. Henry Pimm arrived at Barbadoes, on December 6th; and the Rev. John Greathead at Demerara, on December 8th.

The Rev. W. O. Simpson embarked for Madras on December 29th; and the Rev. Messrs. Hutton, Smith, and Preston embarked on February 3d, 1855, for Canton.

DEATH.

WE regret to have to record the decease of the Rev. Timothy Curtis, Missionary in Jamaica, on December 23d, 1854. Particulars respecting this afflictive event have not yet reached us.

THE amount of contributions and remittances announced on the Cover of the Notices this month is £20,238. 19s. 5d.

LONDON-PRINTED BY JAMES NICHOLS, HOXTON-SQUARE,